posted October 23, 2023

What is GAMUT?

Air medical transportation plays a critical role in the healthcare industry, providing critical patient care while ensuring timely and safe transportation of patients to medical facilities. As the leading provider of medical transport services across the U.S., Air Methods has been leveraging the power of data to enhance its services and improve patient outcomes. One of the key tools in our arsenal is the Ground & Air Medical Quality Transport™ (GAMUT) quality improvement collaborative.

GAMUT™ is a data analytics tool that enables our company to monitor, analyze, and assess performance using quality metrics specific to medical transportation. It is a unique initiative that brings together over 350 critical care transport programs of all sizes, providing a collaborative platform for sharing data and best practices. Air Methods submits data to GAMUT™ every six months. After submitting, the program sets parameters and monitors the data to guarantee accuracy and integrity. This helps to prevent data manipulation and ensures that the metrics are reliable and standardized across the air medical industry.

Why Do Critical Care Programs Use It?

The key benefits of GAMUT™ are in its ability to create an industry benchmark, allowing critical care transport providers to assess their performance in comparison to other programs and pinpoint areas for improvement. In the past, providers have been hesitant to share their quality data in fear of losing their competitive edge. GAMUT™ has changed this dynamic and brought about a culture of collaboration and data-sharing, leading to continuous improvement of patient care and safety.

Providing medical care to patients is complex, especially for the critically ill or injured patients that Air Methods treats and transports. “In order to judge the quality of care, we need to measure our clinical performance,” said David FE Stuhlmiller, MD, FACEP, FAEMS, CMTE, an Air Methods Physician Advisor. “While every critical care transport service strives to continually improve their own performance, and should continue to do so, before GAMUT™, critical care transport services had no idea if their clinical performance was better or worse than that of other services.”

GAMUT™ is championed by the Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA) as the first community-wide attempt to benchmark specific clinical performance measures in the critical care transport setting. A benchmark is the standard against which a measurement can be compared. In healthcare, ideally the benchmark represents an evidence-based best practice.

In 2013, AMPA requested transport medicine programs to submit their quality metrics and then vote on their importance. Representatives from the medical transport community gathered in Denver to finalize the first 22 GAMUT™ metrics for benchmarking. Air Methods, with five clinical leaders involved actively participated in this effort.

Air Methods immediately contributed data to 14 of the original 22 metrics and continues to support GAMUT™ by submitting data and participating in metric revision discussions.

Air Methods has witnessed the tangible benefits firsthand. The metrics and trends identified through GAMUT™ are used to make annual changes to clinical education and training programs. This enables Air Methods to stay ahead of the curve and deliver best-in-class patient care.

The metrics may seem like mere numbers on paper, but they have a real impact on people’s lives. Kelly Miller, VP Clinical Services, highlights that “these metrics are best practices that lead to safer patient care and more positive outcomes for our patients.” By keeping a sharp eye on the data, we can remain committed to delivering exceptional critical care services that improve patient outcomes and ultimately save lives.

There is value in assessing and comparing flight programs from around the world, not just at Air Methods, in order to enhance overall quality. “The averages across the board have been moving up because programs have been able to benchmark themselves against other similar operating bases,” said Miller.

GAMUT™ is an invaluable program that is driving significant improvements in the medical transportation industry. By sharing data, collaborating, and benchmarking against industry standards, providers can deliver safer, more efficient, and more effective life-saving services. Air Methods’ partnership with GAMUT™ is a testament to its commitment to delivering quality care and staying ahead of the curve. Learn more about GAMUT or learn more about Air Methods commitment to clinical excellence.